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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27846622">Extenuating Circumstances</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaos_monkey/pseuds/chaos_monkey'>chaos_monkey</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Winter Prompt Challenges [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Awkward Boners, Ficlet, Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Pre-Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:42:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>854</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27846622</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaos_monkey/pseuds/chaos_monkey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eli is cold. </p>
<p>Thrawn helps.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Eli Vanto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Winter Prompt Challenges [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037175</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>70</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Extenuating Circumstances</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>(written for the prompt: <a href="https://chaos-monkeyy.tumblr.com/post/636306015958220800/chaos-monkeyy-chaos-monkeyy">Huddling for warmth</a>)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Eli wrapped his arms around himself as tightly as he could, shivering. The emergency blanket he was bundled up in helped, but nowhere as much as he’d have liked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of all the times for the blasted speeder to crap out,” he grumbled, glaring at the offending vehicle and scootching forward on his butt, getting a little closer to the small fire Thrawn had built. “How long till pickup gets here?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Approximately eight minutes less than the last time estimate you requested,” Thrawn answered wryly from where he was crouched down, tinkering with the two-person speeder. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eli shifted his glare from the speeder to Thrawn’s back. “They </span>
  <em>
    <span>do </span>
  </em>
  <span>know we’re in danger of dying from exposure out here, right?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thrawn twisted to look back at Eli over his shoulder and Eli hastily looked away— purely so his commanding officer wouldn’t see the glare directed at him, of course. It had absolutely nothing to do with the way the position was pulling Thrawn’s uniform tight across certain portions of his anatomy in extremely interesting ways. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The temperature will not fall to dangerously low levels,” Thrawn said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Speak for yourself,” Eli muttered. “Sir,” he added at Thrawn’s raised eyebrow, shivering again. Maybe he was exaggerating a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little </span>
  </em>
  <span>bit, but he never had done well with cold. He’d be stiff and achy for days after this. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thrawn regarded him in silence for a moment longer; then, to Eli’s surprise, he stood and crossed back to where Eli was sitting. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If the situation is that dire, then we should take precautions,” Thrawn said seriously, and before Eli could react, Thrawn had plonked down behind him, long legs splayed out to either side of his own. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wh—” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eli cut off in a quiet squeak of surprise when Thrawn wrapped both arms snugly around Eli’s waist and hoisted him backwards into his lap, still wrapped up in the blanket. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was </span>
  <em>
    <span>warm. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eli might have groaned quietly with relief. It certainly wasn’t a whimper, anyway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How are you so </span>
  <em>
    <span>hot?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” he asked distractedly, busy fighting down the urge to sigh happily and nuzzle backwards into Thrawn’s extremely welcome body heat. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a pause, and Eli felt his face turn bright red as he realized what he’d just said. At least Thrawn couldn’t see it from behind. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Chiss have slightly higher average body temperatures than humans,” Thrawn answered, shifting slightly to cross his legs under Eli. His voice sounded faintly amused. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eli blushed harder and cleared his throat, aiming for nonchalant and not really hitting the mark. Turned out a casual tone was difficult to achieve while perched in the lap of your hot, in more ways than one, commanding officer. “Right, well. That’s good, then,” he said lamely. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Indeed,” Thrawn said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The low rumble of his voice vibrated against Eli’s back, his breath warm by Eli’s ear. Eli swallowed hard, trying to force completely inappropriate thoughts— and even less appropriate </span>
  <em>
    <span>images— </span>
  </em>
  <span>out of his mind. He failed miserably at that, but couldn’t quite bring himself to mind it all that much. At least his blanket completely hid the… evidence of the direction his thoughts were apparently determined to take. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They fell silent, and Eli relaxed and eventually slipped into a light doze, lulled by the feel of Thrawn’s chest rising and falling rhythmically against his back and Thrawn’s arms strong and warm and comfortably tight around him, by the sound of Thrawn’s breathing soft and steady near his ear. Half-asleep, he twisted slightly in Thrawn’s lap, turning to drowsily burrow his face into Thrawn’s broad shoulder. Thrawn’s breath hitched, almost imperceptibly— and Eli roused enough to become aware that he could feel something noticeably hotter than the rest of Thrawn, subtly pressing up against his ass through the layers of uniforms and crinkly emergency blanket. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>…Oh. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, that was… interesting. To say the least. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fully awake again, his heart rate picking up rather abruptly, Eli licked his lips, trying to figure out if he should </span>
  <em>
    <span>say </span>
  </em>
  <span>something— or </span>
  <em>
    <span>do </span>
  </em>
  <span>something— or just pretend he hadn’t noticed, but how could he </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>notice </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>— </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thrawn’s comm broke the silence instead, crackling to life and sending Eli half-leaping and half-falling out of Thrawn’s lap, nearly tripping over the blanket in his startled, guilty scramble back to his feet. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thrawn raised an eyebrow at him from the ground, a faintly amused half smile twitching at the corner of his mouth. He didn’t look at </span>
  <em>
    <span>all </span>
  </em>
  <span>self-conscious, the big blue bastard. Eli’s eyes darted down to Thrawn’s lap of their own accord, to where he’d been sitting a brief moment ago, and yup, yes, that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>exactly </span>
  </em>
  <span>what he had felt and Thrawn wasn’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>trying </span>
  </em>
  <span>to hide it while he answered the comm and confirmed their position to the inbound shuttle. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>By the time it landed a few minutes later, Eli had </span>
  <em>
    <span>mostly </span>
  </em>
  <span>regained control of his abashedly pleased grin, though not of the heated blush still colouring his cheeks. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At least, he reflected as he hurried gratefully into the climate-controlled shuttle with his silvery blanket still bunched up casually in front of him for… reasons, he was very definitely </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>cold anymore. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
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